The secret documents known as the Afghan War Diary provides dates, locations, and details about everything from missions to civilian casualty downplays and cover-ups. This information was provided to other news sources such as The New York Times and The Guardian several weeks before the release on WikiLeaks. Sources were removed from the documents before publication to protect their identity.

This is the first time in history that government information of this magnitude has been leaked on such a large scale. People around the world are able to read these documents, send links to their friends about it, and comment on it at the click of a mouse. WikiLeaks has even provided a Google Map that links documents to the corresponding locations.

Obviously, this information would never have been released so quickly, and on a global scale if it weren’t for the Internet. WikiLeaks operates in several nations, therefore avoiding censorship or jurisdiction from any one nation. I am undecided if this will have any significant impact on the current state of the Afghan War, but I do think it will affect decision-makers in the future. If persons are more likely to be held publicly accountable for their actions, I feel it will have a positive impact over time. Sites like WikiLeaks are redefining the way we receive the news. What do you think? Do you think this will have any significant impact on the Afghan War and future conflicts, or will this blow over in time?

Foursquare promotions and giveaways have finally come to Sioux Falls. That silly little game that the small, yet active social media-ites of Sioux Falls have been playing since late last fall is now being embraced by local food joint, Sanaa’s Gourmet Restaurant.

Foursquare actually launched back in the spring of 2009 at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas. I was at that conference and thought this mobile game seemed pretty intriguing, but at the time foursquare could only be used in a handful of select cities around the country. When the application opened up to all locations this fall is started to catch on slowly, but surely here in South Dakota.

We’re excited today to announce that there is now even more incentive to play foursquare than just telling your friends where you’re at (as if that wasn’t enough), FREE STUFF! That’s right, 9 Clouds has teamed up with Sanaa’s Gourmet Restaurant to offer a sweet foursquare special. Every time you check-in at Sanaa’s you’ll receive a free cookie or pastry with the purchase of an entree. Pretty cool huh?

Eat your lunch, check in on foursquare, and get free dessert.

It’ll be exciting to watch as local businesses start to adopt foursquare as a unique way to market to their customers and to reach out with deals and promotions. 9 Clouds enjoyed utilizing foursquare at Sioux Falls JazzFest last weekend. Using foursquare was perfect for a large event and we’re able to see the data of who checked in at JazzFest, what time of day, gender breakdown, and more. This is incredibly useful from a marketing standpoint.

Jeff Meuzelaar checks in on foursquare at Sanaa's

9 Clouds is working with other restaurants/bars/venues across both Sioux Falls and Brookings to bring more specials to foursquare so stay tuned.

UPDATE: As of July 22, we’ve teamed up with Mama’s Ladas Enchiladas to offer another foursquare special here in Sioux Falls. Check out their great deal.

One thing to note, 9 Clouds attempted to create a special for our own office location and received the following response from foursquare:

While we’re working the kinks out of our system, we’re trying to limit foursquare specials to places where people meet, socialize and linger. Think: cafes, bars, restaurants, coffee shops, museums, theaters, etc. But stay tuned!  We’ll be expanding the system soon, and you’ll be one of the first to know when we’re ready for all types of business!

It appears to start foursquare is limiting special to more product-based and social locations. This makes sense initially, but look for foursquare to open up their specials to professional services like hair salons and chiropractors.

For more on foursquare for businesses check out fellow internet marketer, Paul Ten Haken’s story in the Argus Leader’s Business Journal.

Here are their numbers as of July 15th:

• Number of videos made: 180+
• Number of video views: 5.9 million
• Number of comments: 22,500

That is some crazy viewership! Now, I tend to shy away from things that are trending because I like to “trend” my own pop culture but for whatever reason, I was ready to jump on this bandwagon and tell everyone about it. Maybe it was the fact that the spots themselves were wittily-written, or that I love anything slightly sarcastic or maybe it was just plain different. Consumers can be a fickle group and Old Spice definitely took a chance here. A chance that has paid off obviously.

I’m actually kicking myself for not discovering the YouTube response videos they created last week using the Twitter activity a bit sooner so I could have maybe been one of the chosen few to have a custom response. But even though I wasn’t in the mix, I found myself strangely addicted to watching a large amount of them on the Old Spice YouTube channel. In an online world where spam is the norm and everyone is looking for the next big thing, it’s so refreshing (ha! pun intended!) to see a brand actually listen, engage and respond to their audience. It seems, that when we feel taken care of and that someone is listening to as consumers, our loyalty and commitment will prove strong.

We can also be the best brand ambassadors out there, I obviously am not in the direct target market for this specific product (or am I, as I do buy it for the husband…so smart, Procter & Gamble!) but would not hesitate to pass the good word on. Is their product that much more superior to other mens bodywashes? Probably not, but when it comes down to it, soap is pretty much soap so you have to find a way to set yourself apart, engage your audience and get them to buy.

Or, if they don’t buy, they may create something to add to the viral explosion. Have you heard about the Old Spice Voicemail Generator? Google it, you won’t be disappointed. This wasn’t even created by Old Spice, some awesome tech guys thought it up and fueled the fire. Apparently, if you build it, they will come. We don’t wait for someone else to create it, we do it ourselves! And you’d better believe that if I didn’t use my phone for work purposes, I would totally have a new voicemail and be telling you all to call me so you can hear just how awesome it is.

Are Old Spice sales up? Time will tell. Will we want to see more advertising like this? Maybe for a bit, until we’ve moved on to something else. As Brenna Ehrlich said on Mashable: “Congrats, Old Spice. You’ve set the precedent. Now ready yourself for the deluge of less successful copycats.”

Across the world in Sioux Falls, SD,  JazzFest will be taking place tonight, tomorrow and Saturday at Yankton Trails Park. Here at 9 Clouds we will be promoting the event via social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter and running contests on Foursquare.  Do we expect to break the World Cup’s record of 3,283 ”tweets-per-second”? No, but we do intend to inform the 90,000+ people that are expected to attend this years JazzFest.  Hopefully JazzFest twitter users embrace this opportunity and spread the glory and atmosphere of Sioux Falls JazzFest.

In a recent presentation by European Sony executive Mike Hawking, PlayStation 3 is adding 3D Blu-ray support. This will make PS3 consoles compatible with 3D games as well as online videos, movies and photos. The firmware upgrade for Blu-ray will be available this September, and 3D YouTube support is expected to become available within a year. Hawking stated since PS3s already have the hardware needed to handle 3D images. This technology will also allow users to upload images from 3D cameras.

Television is also going 3D. This year companies like Samsung and Sony have marketed 3D televisions. 3D TV is expected to become a hugely popular item as 3D becomes more standard in video, gaming and television programming. I feel sports fans will be the first to embrace 3D television, and others will follow once this technology becomes more affordable.

It’s not just entertainment that is going 3D. Adobe recently stated that a new version of Adobe Flash will have 3D support. More details on this new feature will be presented at the Adobe Max conference this October. This will be a huge development for 3D developers and animators. There is no word yet on if this technology will be applied to other Adobe programs such as Photoshop or Illustrator, but I would not be surprised if 3D technology is a key upgrade in the next Creative Suite programs.

What I find interesting about this 3D revolution is that three-dimensional cinema has actually been around in some form since the 1890’s! 3D also had a stint of popularity in the 1950’s, and again in the 1990’s when IMAX theaters were opened. It wasn’t until recent years that there has been a push for 3D technology in other digital platforms. What is next for 3D? What other platforms can you see this technology being used, or even become standard? Mobile? Instant Messaging? Are we going to wake up one morning and find our Google browser or Facebook homepage 3D? Personally, it wouldn’t really surprise me.

1. Admit it, you love knowing what other people are doing. This makes “people-watching” so much easier because you can do it from the comfort of your own home (or phone). I love to just sit, people watch and create storylines for the people I see. Twitter lets you take it to the next level by giving you bits and pieces of their lives – kind of like an extended-version Mad Lib!

2. You don’t have to watch the news anymore. By following a select group of news outlets and people who care about current events, I can usually find out the major events of the day without racing home to see the six o’clock news. Sometimes you may even find out about major events before the news outlets have had a chance to formally construct a story. By following those in the know, you’ll always be informed.

3. If you’re having a bad day, Twitter can make it better. I have two theories on this-if you’re feeling low there is bound to be somebody’s tweet that will make you chuckle or someone will tweet about why their day is rotten and you can commiserate or realize that maybe your day is really ok. I personally love to find things that make me laugh – personal favorite being @someecards (always hilarious and usually related to a current event!). Follow them, you won’t be disappointed.

4. Twitter can help you find motivation. Being a runner, I sometimes find myself lacking the motivation to get my rear out the door and get it done. Twitter can be a great motivator – being the runner that I am, I naturally follow a large number of athletes. This being said, it seems that someone else has always run longer, biked harder or swam a thousand laps more than you thus making you feel like cranking out those four miles might not be so rough after all. I’ve also discovered that if you tweet about procrastinating said run, someone will inevitably help you along by encouraging you to get your rear out the door and get it done. Chances are, they’re probably one of the people that just ran 100 miles or biked across the state. But hey, at least they’re nice!

5. Twitter has the ability to make you care about things your never knew you would care about. Case and point: Lebron James and the World Cup. Now, I love a good basketball game and I realize that soccer seems to be the world’s sport. But if it weren’t for Twitter, I wouldn’t know that ESPN devoted an entire hour of coverage to learning the city Lebron was going to choose for his next season or that the vuvuzela is apparently the most annoying noisemaker out there. Because I follow people that care (or at least tweet) about topics such as these, I can easily feel like one of the masses (even if I don’t care-sssh don’t tell anyone!).

Now that I’ve shared my love for Twitter, what makes you a Twitter lover?

LeBron’s people orchestrated an entire one-hour show on ESPN and are donating all the profits from ad sales to the Boys and Girls Club of America. On Tuesday, LeBron James joined Twitter and already has over 300,000 followers in just three days. One of James’ three tweets reads, “Good Morning! It’s your chance to ask me a question about my decision, use #lebrondecision to submit and I’ll answer them tonight.” LeBron is utilizing Twitter to take questions that he may answer during the one-hour special tonight.

Clearly, LeBron understands the power of his brand and I guarantee he is considering that when he makes his decision tonight.

I’m hoping and predicting LeBron will choose the New York Knicks. Leave your prediction below in the comments section.

1. Consistency

Using multiple social networks can really generate some buzz about your company. However, this can be a double-edged sword if you are carelessly posting information about your business. You want the user viewing your profile to get a good idea of who you are and what your about so they can really connect with you. One easy way to do this is by using a customized theme that is consistent on each social platform. This includes your profile pic, bio, and even your “tone of voice”. These should all resonate a similar feeling so the user doesn’t feel confused when viewing your business on two different social networks.

2. Own Your Name

One quick way to track how your doing with your identity online, do a quick Google search. If you’re not on Twitter yet, a profile on Twitter can really help out your search engine optimization (SEO). Often, Twitter profiles show up first in Google searches, regardless of the number of posts or “tweets”. Another way to help out with web traffic is to include links to your social profiles on your blog and other social networks you use. The more connections you can make the better.

3. Be Yourself

Perhaps the most important tip of all is to be human. The way your business is perceived is the way you are able to connect with other users. People that connect with you online connect with you because of who you are.

Social media allows you to connect on a personal level with numerous users. It provides an opportunity to reach a massive audience simply by speaking your mind. Establishing your brand online is just a matter of using various social tools to connect with others about who you already are.

For more tips on establishing your social media identity, you can visit this article: http://mashable.com/2010/07/06/clean-social-media-identity/ or check out our new release, www.yellowsandbox.com.

There is no question that social media has aided in creating such an enormous following for the Twilight Saga. Fans have been able to follow blogs, Like multiple fan pages on Facebook, and see the latest news on Twitter. These constant updates about vampires, werewolves and the actors who play them keep Twilight top-of-mind for millions of Twi-hards. The Twilight Saga Facebook Like page has nearly 7 million fans. Below is an example of a post on the page (notice the near 10,000 responses). Twilight blogs are also seeing huge followings. The Twilight Superfan blog is even featured on the MSN movies page. Not only are people viewing these sites, but fans are interacting with them . Fans are finding places where it’s ok to be obsessed with these fictional characters. It’s like a wordwide Comic Con, that all fans can attend…all the time.

I admit; I am an extreme Twi-hard. I read the entire series in about a week and never looked back. Despite my personal obsession with vampires, I do think the degree of loyalty displayed from fans since the premiere of the first Twilight film has a lot to do with the introduction of social media. Fans can see photos, clips and interviews with their favorite stars, be the first to see the latest trailers, preview soundtracks and view music videos, sign up for viewing parties, win free Twilight tickets and apparel and much more. Fans were able to watch the red carpet premiere of Eclipse live on UStream last week. The New Moon premiere was also broadcast on UStream last November, with a record shattering 2 million unique visitors. The Eclipse movie website even has mobile apps available for download, so you can stay up to date on Twilight wherever you go! When you’re consistently flooded with information you’re fairly passionate about, you’re bound to become a little obsessed, right?

The premiere of Eclipse, the third film in the saga, is tonight at midnight. See you there! I’ll be the one walking around with an Edward Cullen life-size cutout.

However, it’s not only Twitter and Facebook that are used to shared news of the latest goal. A large number of social networks foreign to US users dominate in terms of unique visitors with sites like Baidu, QQ and Hi5 receiving more visitors than LinkedIn.

As noted by the Economist, these sites include:

Orkut, a Google-owned service that is heavily used in India and Brazil, and QQ, which is big in China. On top of these there are other big national community sites such as Skyrock in France, VKontakte in Russia, and Cyworld in South Korea, as well as numerous smaller social networks that appeal to specific interests such as Muxlim, aimed at the world’s Muslims, and ResearchGATE, which connects scientists and researchers.

With a large diversity in social networking sites, we are beginning to see the change from high noise and low signal, to low noise and high signal. This to say that sites like Facebook and Twitter have millions of users and constant stream of chatter. While this information is useful, it can be overwhelming and distract users from getting information they want. Increasingly, specialized networks such as Sprouter for entrepreneurs or the aforementioned ResearchGATE are used to share with a specific and focused audience.

It seems that this is the next step in social networks. While I love trying to read 3,000 tweets a second, it’s more interesting to share thoughts with other travel lovers or at least to filter out the conversation to people watching the same game I am, like I can do on Hot Potato. Numerous tools make this more possible such as Twitter’s hashtags or creative Facebook API such as UniVision’s ability to share with others watching the game, but look for users to begin to demand more specific networks. This could be customized for their language, their interest, their profession, their age, their race, their gender or their technological skill levels. The impact on separating and creating difference as opposed to uniting through technology will be interesting to watch.

With more social network options, expect the use of social media to continue to grow. Already the US spends almost 6 hours per user per month on social media, just behind other World Cup failures Britain and Italy and well ahead of Germany and Brazil. Based on this data, maybe it’s time for the US to stop using social media and start practicing for the 2014 World Cup.